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Editorial Review Product Description
Anna Baltzer, a young Jewish American, went to the West Bank to discover the realities of daily life for Palestinians under the occupation. What she found would change her outlook on the conflict forever. She wrote this book to give voice to the stories of the people who welcomed her with open arms as their lives crumbled around them.For eight months, Baltzer lived and worked with farmers, Palestinian and Israeli activists,and the families of political prisoners, traveling with them across endless checkpoints androadblocks to reach hospitals, universities, and olive groves. Baltzer witnessed firsthandthe environmental devastation brought on by expanding settlements and outposts and thedestruction wrought by Israel s separation barrier, which separates many families from each other, their communities, their land, and basic human services. What emerges from Baltzer's account is not a sensationalist tale of suicide bombers and conspiracies, but a compelling and inspiring description of the trials of daily life under the occupation. ... Read more Customer Reviews (15) 
A record of oppression, innocence and resistance
The author of this book is an activist well known for her efforts in raising awareness of the Palestinian cause through her public presentations. She also has a multimedia DVD on this topic and maintains a website and blog.
I attended the author's public presentation with a vague support of Palestinian independence. To know some more on the history, geography and politics, I used the internet and read the book Perilous Power: The Middle East and U.S. Foreign Policy Dialogues on Terror, Democracy, War, and Justice.Then I ordered this book to expose myself to Palestinian people.
The author tells us that she took a "Birthright Israel" trip to Israel, and later taught English in Turkey as a Fulbright scholar and spent vacations hiking in Iran, Syria and Lebanon, where she also lived with Palestinian refugee families. After these trips and subsequent inquiry she visited West Bank as a volunteer for International Women's Peace Service (iwpsinfo), an organization opposed to Israeli occupation. This books is based on her three such trips, in 2003, 2005, and 2007.
The first thing I noticed when the book arrived was its thick glossy pages. This book is filled with colour photographs, on average about two per page. The book is arranged in diary type entries by the day, most entries being 3-4 pages long. The entries may revolve around an IWPS activity like accompanying farmers on their land, attending protest marches against the Israeli wall, or it may revolve around harsh Israeli actions. We encounter four sets of people, the Palestinians, the international and Israeli volunteers, the IDF personnel (Israeli military) and the Israeli settlers. I was stuck by the complete absence of the Palestinian Authority.
This book introduces us to many Palestinians. We are told what they do, we see their faces, and we read how their lives have been affected by the Israeli occupation. The author also details the activities and thoughts of the Palestinian, Israeli and international activists. One South African volunteer donated her kidney to a child in need. This book has been very useful to me in illustrating how activists work and think.
The interactions with IDF soldiers and settlers are very tense.
The author clearly has the ability to empathize with other human beings. Due to this we get very close to the daily struggles of Palestinian people. We find that the Palestinian people are very hospitable, that they are forward looking and give importance to education. They are also living under a big strain of occupation. They are bullied by the Israeli settlers and humiliated by the Israeli army. Amidst this subjugation, we find Palestinian people showing grace and clinging to their heritage and humanity.
The writing style of the author is full of feeling, forceful and very transparent.She writes in urban educated colloquial English, and weaves the prose tight. Her writing is also disciplined, in that frivolous episodes are not given much space, and that the emotional content does not sound like a rant or propaganda. The book is edited very well and most assertions are referenced in footnotes. Since I could not dismiss the content as fiction or misinformation, the book was difficult to read. I discontinued reading it at three quarters, tried to restart, but never finished it after reaching 90%.
There are some valid concerns that the book does not address the moral ambiguities of this conflict. Being a victim doesn't make someone more moral, but that's not an excuse to support the oppressor. Here are the author's words from the Introduction:
"... I do not claim that the presentation of the situation is unbiased - I cannot deny having strong opinions about the issue, which will inevitably be apparent in my narrative - but I have tried to keep my editorializing separate from my writing. I also do not profess to offer a broad synthesis of the Arab-Israeli conflict or even of life in occupied Palestine. ..."
You can buy a used copy or you could order it at a lower price directly from the author : annainthemiddleeastcom/book.
An extraordinarily beautiful book about an ugly crime
Anna Baltzer, in "Witness in Palestine," has documented her observations and interviews during eight months of living in Palestine between 2003 and 2007. In my most optimistic moments, I imagine that such a compelling witness by a Jewish woman, who was raised to believe that Israel was the "one protection that...Jews everywhere had against persecution and murder," might actually convince other Jewish Americans that the Israeli occupation should end. More realistically, given our tendency to reject facts that conflict with our current beliefs (our "confirmation bias"), I suspect that people who may be moved by this book are primarily those without strong feelings towards Israel -- but that is enough to make this an important book. In fact, "Witness in Palestine" is the book to read to discover what life is like for Christians and Muslims on Palestinian land that is being occupied - and stolen - by Israel's army and its paramilitary "settlers."
"Witness in Palestine"is an extraordinarily beautiful book about an extremely ugly crime against humanity, a crime that has been aided and abetted by the U.S. government for sixty years. The average American, if they read a single random page of this book, will be surprised by Israel's trampling of basic human rights. If they read a chapter or more, they will be outraged.
The book contains hundreds of color photographs, which capture beautifully the land of Palestine and its people as they struggle to maintain some human dignity amidst brutal oppression. For example, flip to page 279 to see a picture of a Palestinian home in Hebron, on which Israeli settlers have painted, "Gas the Arabs! JDL" [Jewish Defense League]. Hebron is an ancient city of over 100,000 Palestinians, who are terrorized by several hundred Jewish "settlers," armed with military weapons and protected by two thousand IDF soldiers.
My own experience in Palestine mirrors and confirms Anna Baltzer's. In 2005, a guide from the Christian Peacemaker Teams showed me and a dozen other visitors through Hebron's Old City, where almost all of the shops are closed because of settler violence against defenseless Palestinians. Nets hung overhead caught the garbage dumped on the market by armed settlers who had taken over the apartments above the street, another fact documented by photograph in Baltzer's book. She spent some time in the Tel Rumeida neighborhood -- "where almost every Palestinian home had a star of David painted outside [by settlers]" - walking beside Palestinian children who "dodge sticks and stones thrown by settler children (and their parents)."
Although Baltzer suggests that readers should not merely take her word for it, that they should visit Palestine and judge for themselves, I believe that her book is powerful enough to change many open minds. Readers may not have to - as I did - interview an elderly Palestinian woman who was dragged with her terminally ill husband from their home of fifty years, in Arab East Jerusalem, to be replaced by a Jewish family, in order to know that something is rotten in the Holy Land.
As I ponder whether most readers will believe Anna Baltzer's experiences in Palestine, I am reminded of the testimony of Josef Ben-Eliezer, who was expelled by the Nazis from his home in Poland, and forced to march to Russia. Eventually, he made his way to Palestine and found himself, in 1948, on the other side of a similar crime - expelling Palestinians from their homes in Lydda and Tantura, where Zionist soldiers summarily slaughtered unarmed civilians. "Back in civilian life," he said, "I tried to tell about the atrocities committed against the Palestinians by us, but people would not believe me. But I said, `I have been there. I have experienced it myself." Anna Baltzer has been there and experienced the occupation herself.
In George Orwell's "1984", a character says, "If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face-- forever."Palestinians in Israel and the Occupied Territories live in such a world. If you dare to glimpse it, read "Witness in Palestine," but be forewarned: you probably will cease to view Israel as a democracy that should be given billions of dollars of weaponry by the United States every year.
A great read for anyone who wishes to learn about the daily struggles of the Palestinians.
Anna Baltzer was a Jewish American woman who never fully understood what was going on in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Of course, that was until she decided to visit the West Bank and Israel for several months so that she could see the situation for herself. During these months, she visited with many Palestinian families, mostly farmers, who took her in and talked about the situation or life in general.
The best part of the book is that it gives a real sense of who the Palestinians really are by providing individual stories of the people who live there. In reality, the vast majority of Palestinians are humble people with big hearts. They have an overwhelming culture of hospitality. In fact, she gives many examples of people who are very poor that give her plenty of food and shelter throughout her journey while feverishly denying any form of compensation in return.
The book is set up like a diary or journal with a recollection of the events that occurred on any particular day during her travels. I read the hardcover edition which included many phenomenal pictures of her experiences. During her time there, she is a human rights activist and attends several peaceful demonstrations. I will warn you that this book is an emotionally difficult read. I found myself holding back tears at many of the vivid scenes in some of the personal stories.
This is a great book if you really want to know what the Palestinians are going through. As a Palestinian-American college student, I never really knew what was going on over there. I came to the U.S. at the age of six so I'm pretty much American. My grandparents never talked about the subject much because it's probably too painful for them to talk about. When I asked them about it during my reading of the book, they told me about how they were forced to leave their homes and about how their lands were confiscated with no compensation. Furthermore, they showed me the deeds and keys to the lands and homes that they once owned. Presently, my family is scattered all over the globe with some in Jordan, the U.S., Qatar, Ireland, and even some distant relatives still in the West Bank.
In writing this review, my hope is that you will read this book to learn about what is really happening to all of the innocent Palestinians. The media in the states focuses all too often on the macro-level of the conflict without ever talking about the micro-level. In other words, you never hear about all of the individuals who protest peacefully everyday on deaf ears or all the people who die wrongfully at the hands of their oppressors. Education of these atrocities is the first step to eliminating them. So, open your mind, pick up the book, and read, then spread the word.
Thanks.
Great book, if you come from dream land!
Anna Baltzer is extremely well spoken, highly educated and a superb Author.
HOWEVER her opinion on the Middle East, Israelis, and Palestinians does not match reality.In Ms Baltzer's view, if Israel would just "behave humanely" there would be no problem.But the problem is: she ignores Palestinian Terror, neglects the fact that Hamas over threw the democratically elected Palestinian Authority, disregards the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and the Palestinian launching of thousands of rockets into Israel.Furthermore, the author is so focused on championing the Palestinian cause there is never a mention of the problems within Palestinian society such as: torture, honor killings, lack of education, morality patrols (that beat unmarried couples seen in public within the Gaza Strip), no free press, no freedom of speech, or the brutality Christian Palestinians experience at the hands of Hamas.
Overall, Anna Baltzer's work is at worst a wonderful photoshop job of history, at best it is simply bias and naive.
Overwhelming
Anna Baltzer's book is a must read for Christian Zionists. Previously I held Zionist beliefs and I must say that I am ashamed for having swallowed the Kool Aid without examining the issue.
It was a long journey for me that began when a friend challenged me with the question, "What if Jesus was really serious about loving one's enemies?" In most conservative American Christian circles the idea that Jesus was serious about this is preposterous. According to a recent survey, American Evangelicals are the one group that is most supportive of the use of torture by the U.S. As I examined the issue of loving one's enemies I concluded that Jesus was in fact serious about this and that the principle of overcoming evil with good is the foundation of the Christian faith, not some "sinner's prayer" that even a four year old can recite in order to receive a fire insurance policy.
I came across Baltzer's book after having read Blood Brothers by Elias Chacour, Whose Land Whose Promise? by Gary Burge, Secret Believers and Operation Desert Light by Brother Andrew. Burge's book deals specifically wth the claim that the Jewish people have an exclusive biblical right to the land. For example in Leviticus 25:23 it says, "The land shall not be sold in perputuity, for the land is mine; with me you are but aliens and tenants."All of these books are highly recommended for the Christian who desires truth.
I was already convinced that I had been horribly mislead on the Israeli/Palestinian issue by the time I read Baltzer's book. What was unique in Baltzer's book was the flood of stories of injustice against the Palestianian people compounded by the complicity of the U.S. gov't in its' support of Israel to the tune of 10 miliion dollars per day.
This book will overwhelm you with heartbreaking stories of over 60 years of seemingly unbearable injustices. Please read it and give copies to any conservative Christians. Challenge them about the command of Jesus to love your enemies.
Anna Baltzer also has a documentary entitled Life in Occupied Palestine that I highly recommend. Her use of maps detailing the reality of Israeli/Palestinian apartheid is most informative. In her calm yet passionate presentation she exemplifies the best of humanity and gives us all something to aspire to.
In matters of extreme injusice I am reminded of a quote by Tony Campolo. I must censor it for this review but in reality Tony did not censor it. It speaks volumes about apathy. He was speaking in a Sunday morning service when he said, " While you were sleeping last night 30,000 kids died of starvation or diseases related to malnutrition. Most of you don't give a s#@t. What's worse is that most of you are more upset with the fact that I said s@#t than with the fact that 30,000 kids died."
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